


Athelstan & Ragnarok

by mercuryhatter



Series: Vikings and Deities [3]
Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 17:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercuryhatter/pseuds/mercuryhatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athelstan's reaction to the telling of Ragnarok.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Athelstan & Ragnarok

_At last, Fenrisulfr shall swallow the sun._

Athelstan didn’t know how long he floated between worlds, trapped in curls of smoke and the echoes of screams that might or might not have been his. They might have been his but they might also have belonged to a colossal serpent writhing beneath the waves or a wolf surging on padded paws across the sky or a one-eyed warrior leading his army of the valiant against a boat made of fingernails, a Flame-Haired Breaker of Worlds at her prow…

He felt the clash of dead against dead and god against god and monster against monster, he heard the anguish of Loki and Sigyn beneath the Earth and he wept for their children. He wept too for the child of Frigg and Odin, Baldr, bright and beautiful, and he trembled at the resoluteness of Hel in her quiet refusal to return the Bright One to his family. And when the cycle was done and Baldr returned from Helheim to start the world over, he felt loose and limp with relief. 

Then everything was quiet for a long time.

When he came to, he was alone, curled on a pile of furs. The fire was out and the smoke had cleared, leaving his head fuzzy and aching, and his mouth dry as dust. Curling in closer to himself, he took a deep breath, and startled abruptly when he heard a noise next to him.

“Shh, it’s all right.” It was Gyda, sitting next to him with a horn of water, which she offered to Athelstan as he sat up slowly. “I thought I should be here when you wake up, I… it is not easy to hear.”

Athelstan just shook his head, downing the water quickly and coughing a bit at the haste. Gyda bit her lip.

“I’m sorry,” she offered. “You were not expecting that.”

“No,” Athelstan admitted. “Is it always like that?” Gyda nodded, shifting closer to him to take the empty horn, and then just ending up tucked comfortably into his side. Neither of them questioned it; both welcomed the friendly contact.

“Well, yes,” she replied. “It’s like… it’s like your book, you know?” The English word sounded strange on her tongue, but her accent was getting better every time she pronounced one of Athelstan’s words. “The way it’s painted and decorated and you keep it very safe. We don’t have books, so we paint and decorate and make sacred with our words and our acting.” Athelstan nodded, this made sense to him. 

Gyda yawned and dropped her head onto Athelstan’s shoulder.

“It’s late,” she murmured. “Tell me again the story about how your God created the world? I don’t want to think about Ragnarok anymore.”

Athelstan glanced at her warily, remembering how his story had been received the last time, but he started to speak slowly. Gyda remained quiet and attentive on his shoulder and his words began to come more easily; he tried to use them as the storytellers had, casting them out like billowing sails and shaping them into pictures in the air. 


End file.
